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<< Sens acquire D Sutton from Islanders
Ottawa, ON (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - The Ottawa Senators have acquired defenseman Andy Sutton from the New York Islanders in exchange for a second-round draft pick in 2010. Sutton is in his 11th NHL season and had four goals and eight assis

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Barcelona, Spain (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Barcelona has overtaken Manchester United in the latest rich list of European clubs. Real Madrid still top the Deloitte Football Money League but Barca are now second ahead of United, largely becaus

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Manchester, England (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - The Glazer family is adamant that they have no intention of selling Manchester United. A group called the "Red Knights" are reported to be interested in buying the recent Carling Cup winners from the

<< Royals sign Hochevar, Rosa for 2010
Surprise, AZ (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - The Kansas City Royals have agreed to contracts with pitchers Luke Hochevar and Carlos Rosa for the 2010 season. Hochevar was the No. 1 overall pick in the 2006 draft and debuted for the big league

Flyers D Parent activated off IR, returns Tuesday >>
Tampa, FL (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - The Philadelphia Flyers activated defenseman Ryan Parent from injured reserve on Tuesday, and will return to action Tuesday as the club faces the Tampa Bay Lightning. Parent had successful surgery in late Jan

Liverpool's Skrtel could miss rest of season >>
Liverpool, England (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Liverpool defender Martin Skrtel could struggle to return to first-team action before the end of the season after being told he faces an eight-week lay-off with a broken metatarsal. He suffered the

RSL releases pair of veterans, pair of rookies >>
Sandy, UT (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Real Salt Lake waived midfielder/forward Rachid El Khalifi and forward Abe Thompson and released rookie defenders Kris Banghart and Justin Davis from its preseason camp, the Major League Soccer club an

2011 Pro Bowl to be played before Super Bowl XLV >>
New York, NY (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - The National Football League announced on Tuesday that the 2011 Pro Bowl, which is to return to Honolulu after a one- year absence, will be once again played the week before the Super Bowl. The decisio

SPORTS BETTING - Tennis is an underrated and under-utilized bettors' sport.

Ten years ago, at just about this time, I called Alan Boston in Vegas and left him a voicemail that went something like this (abridged version): "Hey Alan, Chad Millman from ESPN The Magazine calling. I want to do a book about wise guys, you in?"

A couple weeks later I got a message back (abridged version): "I don't know, maybe," Boston said. "Call me and we'll talk about it. But not later today. I got $1,000 on Andre Agassi to win the French Open at 40-1, and he's in the finals."

Here's what happened next (abridged version): Agassi won his tourney. Boston won his $40,000. I wrote sportsbook.

In the ten years since, how much has been wagered on the big-time tennis events? Put it this way: The Nevada Gaming Commission doesn't even track the number year by year because it's so small.

"Tennis makes up about one-tenth of one percent of our take," says Lucky's bookmaking boss Jimmy Vaccaro. "The last big golf major we probably had $100,000 worth of bets. In tennis, we might have written two big tickets."

Tennis' lack of popularity amongst the American bettoratti is no surprise, really. For starters, the biggest sports betting holidays -- the Super Bowl, the NCAA tourney -- are must see TV. People, at least the degenerates I know, plan vacations around watching those events in Vegas sports books.

But Wimbledon? Doesn't exactly reel in the whales. "Seriously, it's the nuts as an event," says Boston. "But who even knows when it's on?"

Here's another reason that helps explain why golf gets traction, something I call "The Bubbe Theory." My Bubbe is pushing 95 and has cataracts so bad that, to her, even the most crystalline Chicago day is mostly cloudy. But she still listens to the Cubs games, and she still calls me in a fit if she disagrees with something Rick Telander writes in the Chicago Sun Times. She's a sports fan. If she doesn't know you, you're just filling a niche. And niche players, even historically good ones like Roger and Raf, don't drive betting volume. Only the highest profile names attract square money, which inflates wagering totals like a shot of saline to the lips. Bubbe, and the public, loved Agassi, tennis' last cross-the-rubicon, mainstream draw. She also has a crush on Tiger. She's given me standing orders to put a sawbuck on the big cat whenever I walk through a sports book (or mistakenly tap into one via my Internet machine.) That explains why the Masters is getting $100K in action at some books while the four tennis majors might not get that combined this year.

This isn't a case of tennis being a difficult sport to bet. In fact, in Europe, it's probably the second most popular sport for gambling after soccer. Granted, as the WSJ football betting last week and The Mag's Shaun Assael examined in even greater depth last year, that might be because gamblers across the pond see it as an easy game to fix. But it could also be because, over there it holds the kind of sway the big two do over here.

Street corners in Spain are peppered with public courts and kids doing their best Raffy impressions. In some war torn parts of Eastern Europe poverty-stricken kids view tennis as an escape route, like football or basketball here. A couple years ago The Mag's Lindsay Berra wrote a great piece about Belgrade's Jelena Jankovic, Ana Ivanovic and Novak Djokovic. They learned the game as kids while bombs were raining down on their homeland. They practiced in drained swimming pools. Not exactly Nick Bolletierri conditions.

In the United States, casual fans think tennis is played four times a year. But on the tightly packed European continent, national interest in homegrown talent runs deep every weekend. Of the ATP's current top 20 players, only two, tennis betting and James Blake, are American. Fourteen are from Europe, representing six different countries.

No wonder fans from Lisbon to Bhudapest get jacked up for the net game, whether it's Wimbledon or a low-level tourney like the Estoril Open in Portugal (congrats to Spain's Albert Montanes for winning that one, btw). Chances are good that someone representing their flag will not only be playing, but have a shot at winning.

And that's all any bettor can ask for.

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